Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella

Activity 1: The students would have fun acting out the story because they are familiar with the original Cinderella fairy tale. I think the first thing that we could start out with would be tableaux (a frozen picture depicting a scene of a story) and then add improvisation to the tableaux, making them come alive.

Activity 2: The class could choose a specific scene. For example, in the scene where the girls are trying on the spurs in order to marry Joe Prince, the students can write in role about what the character is thinking. One of the sisters could be thinking, "If I only had smaller feet." (This is one of the activities I used in Mr. Lopez's classroom.)

Activity 3: To incorporate other arts it would fun for the students to make boas and belt buckles. The supplies needed would be glue, glitter, tinfoil, beads, and stencils. This activity would be fun to start out with so that the students could use them as props in the tableaux.

Activity 4: The students could have a square dance or do a line dance at the end of the unit. This would be another fun activity to make the story become more life-like and also it's a good way to look at the culture of cowboys. (I taught Mr. Lopez's students "The Slap Leather" line dance.)

Activity 5: Spanish terms could also be incorporated. The word rodeo is Spanish for "round-up". The students could find other Spanish words for cowboy terms throughout the unit. You could refer to it as a "Rodeo of Words."

 

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